Duncan Watmore’s goal sealed a point for the Black Cats in a hot-tempted affair that saw three red cards in the finals few minutes.
Alex Samuel got the scoring underway for the hosts in a half which Sunderland were incredibly poor. It looked as if the points were Wycombe’s but in injury time Watmore scored to make it all square. However, the drama occurred after the goals as George Honeyman and Nathan Tyson were sent off from the bench and Wycombe were reduced to ten on the field minutes later with Marcus Bean’s two yellow cards.
Sunderland returned to league action following the teams Checkatrade trophy success and travelled down to Wycombe to keep the pressure on Barnsley and Luton.
Jack Ross reverted to the team which beat Plymouth last weekend as Lee Cattermole replaced Max Power and Reece James came in for Adam Matthews.
Wycombe went into the match in 12th position and have been in poor form with four defeats in a row and haven’t won since late January against Plymouth.
There was also a return for Luke O’Nien to his old stomping ground, he spent three years with the Chairboy’s and was a part of their promotion-winning season last year.
Wycombe had the first opening of the match as they broke down the right and Matt Bloomfield managed to beat Jimmy Dunne and James, but Grant Leadbitter came back brilliantly to block the effort on goal.
The opening five minutes was very open with both teams looking to get the ball quickly up the pitch and press forward.
Somehow Wycombe didn’t take the lead as Nathan Tyson went charging down the right and had two players in the box to past too and he put it on a plate for Luke Bolton, but from less than six yards out he couldn’t find the target - it was an incredible miss.
The hosts were looking the better as the half progressed and were looking the more likely to break the deadlock.
It was an incredibly scrappy affair at Adams Park, there were so many fouls which broke up the play and prevented any kind of flow to the match.
Sunderland gave the ball away cheaply in the middle of the pitch and were punished, Paris Cowan-Hall played it to Alex Samuel who stroked it home to give Wycombe the lead and it was deserved.
There was only one team who looked up for the match and it was the hosts, Sunderland were slow and simply had no energy to their play.
Jack Ross needed a big half time team talk to rally the lads as they looked out of character and a team short of ideas.
Sunderland came the closest not long into the second half as Leadbitter’s free-kick found Tom Flanagan whose header crashed against the bar.
The lads had come out from the break looking a lot better, but in truth that wasn’t saying a lot considering how poor the first half performance was.
Wycombe almost made it two from a corner as McLaughlin was trapped in his six-yard box it looked as if it was going to fall to Cowan-Hall, but he couldn’t get any contact on the header.
Sunderland had a great chance to get a goal back as McGeady did an outrageous skill to beat his man and crossed to Cattermole, he knocked it down for Morgan, but his shot was blocked.
With only 15 minutes to play things didn’t look promising for the lads, Ryan Allsop hadn’t had to do anything in the Wycombe goal and Sunderland hadn’t had a single shot on target in the 75 minutes played.
The Chairboy’s almost sealed the game as Bloomfield’s volley was well saved by McLaughlin as he tipped it over the bar.
Sunderland came so close to getting an equalized with the first shot on target, Dunne’s header was well saved by the feet of Allsop.
Thing’s went from bad to worse as Sunderland as Flanagan was kicked in the face and was out cold. He was attended to by both sets of the medical staff but thankfully could walk off the pitch. It meant Sunderland were down to ten men for the final few stages.
In injury Sunderland finally managed to make the breakthrough, Leadbitter’s attempt from 35 yards out was parried by Allsop and fell to Duncan Watmore who fired home from close range to give the lads a point.
Not long after the goal, there was a huge scrap in the dugout between the two dugouts and it led to Honeyman and Tyson both being sent off.
Deep into injury time Wycombe were down to ten men as Marcus Bean fouled Watmore and was given a second yellow card.
Full Time: Wycombe 1-1 Sunderland
ALS Man of the Match: Grant Leadbitter
